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2001 Ford Focus Owner Comments

Focus SE

Automatic transmission

30,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The electrical circuit on the rear license plate light has a tendency to eventually make contact with the body of the car creating a short circuit. The first time this happened, I was on my way home from a family affair at night and smelled something burning. When I pulled over to see what was wrong, I could not turn off the headlights and could find nothing wrong.

When I got home about fifteen minutes later, I found a melted fuse ( an original fuse that came with the car). It had not blown. But I did not know why. I took it to an AAA mechanic that said they were experts in electrical problems. They found the problem $800 later where the rear lite was rubbing against the chassis and shorting the circuit.

The Ford fuse was bad from the factory and melted the circuit wire from the dash to the rear light. It all had to be replaced. This happened again a few months ago when I was driving home in a rain storm. This time the fuse blew and I had the suspect under control. Why the shop didn't just wrap the light mount with electrical tape to insulate it from the chassis as I did is a mystery to me.

Why Ford engineered this car the way they did and charged money for it is a bigger mystery to me.

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